The Latest Upgrades to the New Pirates Prospects
Career Statcast data, Win Probability Added, Plays of the Day videos, and improved navigation across PiratesProspects.com.
I made two big additions to Pirates Prospects this week.
The first is the addition of career Statcast data for every player.
The second is the addition of Win Probability Added (WPA) stats to the nightly results.
I also made a massive upgrade to the navigation of the site, starting with the homepage.
You can read about these changes below.
The Statcast Expansion
When I added sortable Statcast data to the site earlier this month, it allowed for a comparison of who the best players were throughout the minor league system, using advanced metrics such as chase rates or exit velocity.
There was one big problem: Altoona and Greensboro don’t have Statcast data.
It was brought up that Axiel Plaz would be a great player to have numbers on, especially with him hitting .323/.387/.568 with nine homers in 174 plate appearances for Greensboro. Unfortunately, Plaz is in that Statcast wasteland of A+/AA, meaning he won’t get public data this year unless he reaches Indianapolis.
With the latest additions, you can now go to his Pirates Prospects player page, click the Statcast tab at the bottom, and see that he had a 92 MPH average exit velocity with Bradenton last season, along with a 113.9 MPH max velocity. Plaz also had a 48.7% hard hit rate and a 13.1% barrel rate on recorded plays. It’s not this year’s numbers, but there is at least some information on players in Greensboro/Altoona.
You can check out any player from their player page links on the depth chart. You can also sort through the system to see 2026 leaders on the Stats page.
This update took a long time to incorporate. The initial data download alone took nearly 12 hours, and it was about eight more hours of additional downloads, plus several hours of work configuring the stats.
I put this together across a combined 24+ hours of work because I’m always wanting to know how the minor league players stack up with their advanced metrics. Unfortunately, there isn’t a great source of this information. Until now.
I hope you find the newly compiled Statcast data just as valuable.
WPA Additions
A week ago, I launched the Player of the Day/Week/Month feature, which was based on RE24.
I selected RE24 because it laid the best foundation for a player’s value in a specific game, week, or month. However, I wanted to expand upon that scoring system to account for game situations and individual contributions.
By the end of last week, I was starting to incorporate aspects of WPA to address the situational scoring. I’ve also incorporated aspects of fantasy baseball scoring to give different values to different stats, according to the individual level of contribution.
The RE24+WPA scores can be seen each day in the box scores on Pirates Prospects.
If you go to Wednesday’s box scores (6/17), you can see that Ryan O’Hearn led the entire organization with a +3.88 RE24+WPA, after driving in six runs on Wednesday night. The minor league system was led by Levi Sterling, who was +2.88 after a six shutout inning performance with Bradenton.
I also updated the Player of the Day section to include a Batter and a Pitcher. Omar Alfonzo was the Batter of the Day for his two home runs in Altoona’s suspended game, with Sterling joining on the pitching side.
I’ve also recently added a video feature that tracks the Top 10 Minor League Plays of the Day. This is where the addition of WPA has the biggest impact, determining the rankings of those plays.
Alfonzo showed up twice in the Plays of the Day video on 6/17 for his home runs, including one monster shot off the batter’s eye in center field. The play of the day actually belonged to his teammate, Jack Brannigan, who hit an inside the park home run to start things off for Altoona.
Alfonzo took the top spot the next night, on Thursday 6/18, with another home run, giving him three in a two-game span.
My favorite Play of the Day video so far was on Saturday 6/20. This featured a walk-off home run in Bradenton from Brent Iredale, eight strikeouts in Greensboro from Seth Hernandez, and a defensive web gem in Bradenton from Antonio Pimentel.
The last three Plays of the Day videos will always appear on PiratesProspects.com. The fastest way to get updates would be subscribing to the Pirates Prospects YouTube channel.
The RE24 and WPA data, along with the Player of the Day and the Plays of the Day videos, are meant to help you keep updated with everything going on in the Pirates minor league system each day.
I personally enjoy keeping the Scores page loaded and watching the live updates while I’m working on the latest updates to the site. The entire design, from scores to top performers to videos, is meant to allow you to stay updated on the entire system each day in less than ten minutes.
You can also follow Pirates Prospects on Twitter/X for the latest transactions, home run updates, and game results.
And don’t forget to subscribe to this newsletter for my latest articles.
Improved Site Navigation
Pirates Prospects has been back online for less than a month. Every week I create a list of updates I want to accomplish.
So much information has been added to the site in the first month.
Scores. Stats. Rosters and depth charts, with links to player pages with Statcast data for every player in the organization.
Schedules. Standings. Transactions. Payroll tracking. The Draft Pick Signing Tracker. The International Signing Tracker. Daily Fantasy Baseball Research.
And, my favorite, the Prospect Hotsheet.
After the additions of Statcast data and WPA results, I switched my focus to making all of the above data easier to browse.
The biggest update this week was a reorganized homepage.
A live updating scores bar is now featured at the top of the page, which simplifies the ability to track what is happening each night. Click a game and it will take you directly to the box score page, with full stats and play-by-play information.
Other sections as you scroll the homepage:
The three most recent articles on Pittsburgh Baseball Live
The three most recent Plays of the Day videos
Daily Top Performers, with the Batter/Pitcher of the Day, along with home runs hit and strikeout leaders.
Season leaders and standings, including records, and the top five home run and strikeout leaders in the organization.
2026 financial trackers, including 2026 payroll projections, the 2026 Draft Pick Signing Tracker, and the 2026 International Signing Tracker.
And the latest transactions.
The homepage is meant to give you a quick overview of what’s happening in the entire organization, with an easy ability to expand upon any section with a click to the relevant page.
I also made updates to the Scores page, allowing for easier browsing between dates, and a cleaner way to keep track of the score of each game. It was bothering me that I couldn’t easily navigate between dates to see past results.
The Schedule page has been updated with a cleaner design, showing all available probable starters for future games.
Pirates Prospects not only includes more information than any individual Pirates site, but that information is now easier to navigate.
Future Updates
Five months ago, I began building the scripts for the current Pirates Prospects.
Two months ago, I went all-in on that project, having live in-season data to work with.
One month ago, I was starting the process of getting the live site online.
Every week since the re-launch, I write down a list of changes that need to be made that week.
The upcoming week doesn’t have any massive updates like the addition of new data or metrics. I might even knock out my current list by Monday evening.
One benefit to where the site is at right now is that I can take a day or two to just observe. Every time I follow the Pirates through my site, I get a new idea for something to change, or a new feature to add. Future updates are inevitable.
For now, I’m going to take a few days to follow baseball games, write some articles, and maybe I’ll get to mapping out the next big addition to the new Pirates Prospects.
Until the next time I go live…
-Tim Williams